This report represents a solid effort by Seoul, and well worth your time to read. The report addresses major issues head on, with accompanying infographics. It also offers some fascinating details with which you may not be familiar. As part of “reducing inconveniences during barrack life,” for example, did you know that there is a “Mothers’ military meal monitoring group” (p. 206)?

Click here to download eBook and PDF versions of this and previous defense white papers, which South Korea issues every two years.

The full-text PDF is available here (hard copies are also available, in convenient format).

The Appendix is particularly interesting, with substantive coverage of illegal Chinese fishing (pp. 238-41), North Korean landmine and artillery provocations (pp. 242-47), adjustment to the Korea Air Defense Identification Zone/KADIZ (pp. 248-50), and THAAD deployment (pp. 251-54). You can access it as a separate file here.